The standard data entry keyboard used to input data into a computer is based on the "QWERTY" layout developed over 100 years ago for the manual typewriter. The alphabetic keys, numeric keys and most punctuation keys are laid out essentially the same as they were over 100 years ago. This layout has no particular logic to it in terms of the sequence of the keys other than to keep the keys from jamming from being struck too fast. This was useful in the days of mechanical typewriters which depended on levers causing arms with letters forged on them to swing up from their resting positions and strike an inked ribbon against the typing paper.
Another feature of the keyboard layout which was necessitated by the mechanical nature of typewriters was the offsetting of the keys from one row to the next so the levers would be evenly spaced. It can be easily observed that it is easier to learn to use a standard 10-key calculator keyboard than a "QWERTY" keyboard in part because the keys lie in both straight rows and straight columns. In moving from one number to another on the calculator, one only has to move straight up (away from the user) and/or straight down (toward the user) rather than consider various diagonal movements as one does when typing on a standard QWERTY keyboard.
The home row on a keyboard is the row normally recommended for initial placement of the fingers of both hands other than the thumbs. On the QWERTY keyboard the row starting with the letter A is the home row. For most of the keys in a QWERTY keyboard one normally reaches a bit to the left when striking a key in the row above the home row and a bit to the right when striking a key in the row below the home row. These movements tend to be somewhat awkward, especially for the left hand because the striking finger tends to run into the finger next to it.
Because a modern keyboard uses electrical signals from switches and not mechanical levers there is no need to use an awkward layout wherein the keys are not arranged in straight rows and straight columns.
About 20 years ago, most people who used a keyboard held clerical or secretarial positions and spent a great deal of time perfecting their keyboard skills and practicing them. Today, and in the future, millions of people who are not skilled keyboard users are nevertheless using them in one or more aspects of their life, and will continue to do so in seemingly ever greater numbers. Even very young children today are harnessing the power of computers for schoolwork, entertainment and other uses. There is therefore a need for a more logical keyboard layout which will make learning easier, overcome the shortcomings of the "QWERTY" layout and speed the work of the skillful keyboard user.
Others have proposed many possible alternatives but none has successfully replaced QWERTY as the standard. Dvorak and Dealy U.S. Pat. No. 2,040,248 detailed many of the problems of the "QWERTY" layout and proposed a solution. Their pioneering work antedated the invention of the computer and so is still tied to the old mechanical typewriter. They did point out that the speed of a typist is tied closely to the relative position on the keyboard of the keys of two-letter combinations which make up the words being typed. Faster typing, they observed, is possible when one alternates hands to successively strike different keys and slowest when typing using the same finger to successively strike two different keys.
It has been noted that the QWERTY keyboard puts the greater portion of typing most words in English predominantly on the left hand. This is disadvantageous because most people are right-handed and would be expected to type better if a greater portion of typing were done with the right hand.